Sims 2 problems.

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Kurupt

Seems like a lot of people have asked about The Sims 2. I got a good laugh reading this: https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic66528.html
Apparently people do expect others to read their mind. Anyway, yes I do have a problem with The Sims 2.
( I have the DirectX Diagnostics attached for your enjoyment ;) )

Alright so here's the deal:

I did a check on my computer before I bought The Sims 2 just to see if my computer could even run it. I passed on all the tests. I was well above the minimum requirements for most of the areas. So I bought it of course and came home and installed it. The installation went great and I was running the game finally. So the game loaded and it was looking decent. Once I got into one of the neighborhoods the game would get all choppy. Definitely not enjoyable. I can play...decent with 1 sim, but when any others come on the lot it sucks. The game instantly slows down.

My thoughts:
I have an integrated graphics card, which does meet the minimum requirements so I'm wondering if that's the problem. I ran the EAsy Info application and all my specs passed. I've done everything I could do so far.

So anyone out there, can ya help me out? If you have any questions about my computer that I haven't already answered please ask. Thanks everyone.
:)
 
The minimum requirements are just that, minimum requirements. It will play the game, but its not going to do so happily.

As you can see, you don't really meet the requirements with the video card. You'll require a minimum of the Intel 915 chipset, however your comp utilizes the 845 chipset.

However, you can still run it because you've got a processor thats faster than 2.0 ghz.

Bear in mind that your computer is about as basic as you can get, even when you bought it new. Its meant to be a workstation, not a gaming powerhouse. It will run some older games fine, newer games if your pulled the graphics way down (or more likely not at all), and Sims 2 is recent enough that you might need to change your graphics settings to acheive enjoyable framerates.

The only way you're going to be able to play the game without getting it to slow down significantly would probably be to upgrade, and at this point, a graphics card upgrade might be the best way to do it. However, there's problems there as well, since this computer does not come with an AGP port, or PCI-E port, which is what most graphics cards require. It is possible to get a PCI graphics card, but these cards aren't intended for gaming. There's a link here which you might be interested in, talking about gaming on PCI slots. However, the first post talks about the 6200, the 7300 might perform much better (something to consider).
 
you should see much better performance on this.

Tiger direct doesn't seem to have the 7300, but the 6200 should be the very minimum to consider... Might be a good idea to look up some benchmarks for these cards, but it might be a challenge, since nobody really benchmarks such low-end cards.

Also, beware, apparently TigerDirect has put some AGP cards under PCI. There was a $40 5200 which is AGP under the PCI category.

Also, even with the 5200, you should see a tremendous improvement in performance, but don't bet on it running extremely smooth.
 
That one looks nice. As long as it runs The Sims 2 well I'm happy. I don't intend on putting many games on this, just that one.
 
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